EVENTS

The Most Influential Female Atheist of 2011

It’s the time again for top ten lists and random end of the year awards. Here at Blag Hag, it means it’s time to recognize the wonderful women of the atheist movement.

Why bother with a women-only poll? Because despite their accomplishes, women are still frequently overlooked when we acknowledge people in the atheist movement. I originally started this informal award because of end of the year “Top Atheist” lists that always seemed to exclude women. We’re certainly getting better: the gender ratio at cons is getting less skewed for attendees and speakers, and women’s issues are gaining more and more attention in the movement. But there’s still room for improvement. The main public figures of atheism are predominantly men, and calling out blatantly obvious issues of sexism results in the internet exploding (not to mention, you know, rape and death threats). And yet again, end of the year round-ups forget that women exist.

But this year we’re going to do something different. Instead of me giving you a list of women to choose from, you get to vote for whoever you want, and as many women as you want. This prevents the cries of “Why didn’t you include lady X?!” and “How am I supposed to choose between awesome person Y and awesome person Z?!” Just comment below clearly listing the names of who you vote for. Once the votes stop trickling in, I’ll make a new post announcing the results.

And of course, feel free to add why you’re voting for these amazing atheist women. What did they do in 2011 that made them noteworthy? What posts, or articles, or talks, or campaigns stuck out to you? How did they personally affect you?

Comments

1 vote for Rebecca Watson – By stating simple facts and making relatively benign criticisms, she (mostly inadvertently) set off (a) huge firestorm(s) that plainly displayed how much of a problem sexism is in the atheist and skeptic community.

While this led to a lot of people digging in their heels and denying all the more vigorously that the issue exists at all, it also opened some eyes to a problem that seemed to run under the radar (at least, it did for a lot of men).

For me, it’s got to be Rebecca Watson. She’s done a great job of exposing misogyny and bigotry in the Atheist/Skeptic communities this last year, and she only had to make the mildest criticisms to do it… what would happen if she actually showed anger?

I also want to give an honourable mention to Natalie Reed, who’s done a great job communicating transgender issues on Skepchick, and fast become on of my favourite bloggers.

Rebecca Watson – duh. Kind of in a league of her own for what she did this year, but there are other women I want to recognize too:

Jessica Ahlquist – For serving as a wonderful example of what young people can do, and what the future of our movement can look forward to
Elyse Anders – for her tireless work against anti-vaxxers
Ashley F. Miller – For her fabulous TAM talk on emotion & skepticism and her recent prodding of Ron Paul fanatics
Greta Christina – Because she’s always awesome
Lyz Liddell – For all of her hard work behind the scenes at the Secular Student Alliance
Maryam Namazie – For her constant effort against the misogynistic practices of Islam

Obviously Rebecca Watson, for causing the kind of shitstorm that educates and enlightens. I think, by and large, we’re a better community for having this argument. Also, I have to admire anybody who takes a big name like Dawkins down a notch.

I would also like to nominate Natalie of Skepchick fame. For pointing out my misinformed beliefs about sex and gender. For me this has been my trans-education year, helped along greatly by her.

And because all good things come in threes I’m going to toss out the Godless Bitches. It’s a wonderful show and wonderfully educational.

Rebecca Watson, for obvious reasons, but also Sikivu Hutchinson, who wrote an amazing book (Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars) that covered areas that I think are so far unexamined but in desperate need of it, and also founding and running the Women’s Leadership Project, a feminist mentoring program for girls in South Los Angeles. In short, because she is a gigantic badass.

I can’t possibly measure anyone’s overall influence, so I can only vote based on how a particular person has influenced me. Any person who has made me change my mind, think about something that I haven’t given thought to before, or at least solidify my thinking on a subject, gets my vote. Here are my votes, in no particular order:

No. 1 for me is Greta Christina, who has directed my attention to some of my blind spots on a number of issues.

No. 2, Maryam Namazie, who shines a bright light on the dark and dangerous corners of an intolerant religion.

No. 3 is Rebecca Watson, who has challenged my thinking in a manner similar to that of Greta Christina, but more importantly has also introduced me to a large number of other excellent atheist writers.

No. 4 is Jen McCreight, who continues to write excellent points on all sorts of irrationalities, not just the religious ones. Jen, you were the first female atheist blogger that I subscribed to, and you continue to be entertaining, informative, and influential.

Rebecca Watson, with recognition of the personal price she has paid for shining a light on a whole lot of ugliness that needed to be exposed.

Greta Christina, for comprehensive and insightful posts on said ugliness (not to mention the personal price of being on the receiving end of it also) and many other valuable topics. Others write very well also, but for my mind, Greta just nails it.

I posted this on Staks Rosch’s open nomination page, but apparently he closed the process down the morning of the 28th instead of the evening. Pretty astounding sign of tone deafness that women couldn’t even get 20% representation on his final list – when people talk about the marginalization of women within the atheist movement, that makes a pretty good case in point. Anyway, here’s the list.

1. Greta Christina – in addition to her consistently great posts, her speech, Why Are You Atheists So Angry, was an excellent addition to every lineup in which it was included.
2. Maryam Namazie – for campaigning against faith based laws.
3. Jessica Ahlquist – for her perseverance in the fight to remove a prayer from the wall of her high school auditorium.
4. Rebecca Watson – for bringing the long overdue conversation about sexism within the atheist movement to the table, and helping to keep it there.
5. Beth Presswood – for creating the Godless Bitches podcast – dealing with the intersection of feminism and secularism.

Rebecca Watson. Shamefully, I couldn’t name another that’s been influential this year, and can name rather few female atheists – that’s why I nominate Rebecca, for making me see how shameful that is, and how much privilege has blinded me. In 2012 I hope to have a much longer list.

I also want to highlight some of the work that Natalie has been doing for Skepchick, raising the profile of the trans gender movement, and opening my eyes to the problems and the lack of skepticism around cis privilege.

Looks like most people are already saying it, but I have to give my top vote to Watson, even if what she did was not meant to be controversial or special in any way, it sure brought into light how much growing up the atheist community has to do.

And now seeing JT’s post, I think Jessica Ahlquist is also a good candidate.

Vyckie Garrison had also been making a name for herself late in 2011, but she might instead be more of a “Rising star for 2012″ or something like that.

1. Rebecca Watson, for whom I cannot say anything that hasn’t already been said much better by people who know her (and know more of her) than I do.

2. Maryam Namazie, for her brave and public leadership against the rising tide of radical Islam in Britain (and elsewhere).

3. Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She is the most courageous person I’ve ever heard of, and though she didn’t do anything to garner much publicity in ’11 (which may well be a *good* thing, given the desires of the many people who wish to see her brutally murdered), her shadow looms large across the whole of skepticism. She sits astride the ‘respect’ the faithful demand, providing the ultimate counterexample to the fatuous bleating of ‘peace’ and ‘love’ mumbled so soddenly. Every day she draws breath is a victory over the medieval cowards who wish to see her destroyed for standing up and daring to strike off the shackles of ignorance that hold far too many people in bondage.

My top vote goes to Jessica Ahlquist, because high school atheists have to stick together. :) Greta and Rebecca are amazing in their own rights, but high school is hard enough without having to defend the Constitution against the ignorance of an entire town.

Another vote for Jessica Ahlquist; who as a teenager not only has to deal with clueless theists (as there were any other kind), but clueless theist, misogynist trolls, right there with her at her high school. I wish *I* could have had the poise and integrity at 16 years old that Jessica does. The other candidates are all worthy, too, but Jessica has influenced me more than the rest of them combined.

Agree 100%! We have several wonderful ladies in the movement that should be on this list Greta, Rebecca, Jen, but Jessica is my #1 pick also because I know from the parents roll how hard it is for our High Schoolers take a stand and see it though knowing they are in the minority even though they are spot on legally. The teen years are hard enough without being thrown into the spotlight on a much larger stage. Jess has dealt with a lot and has handled it with bravery and determination.

Wow! Thank you so much to those who mentioned me! It’s an honour just to be included in the same screenshot as the many incredible women mentioned here! :)

For my money, for 2011, the vote has to go to Rebecca. Those two controversies were big and ugly and exhausting, but they’ve done more for illuminating the depth of the problem of sexism within the atheist and skeptic communities more than anything else this year.

And furthermore, it’s she who has provided a space and platform for the rest of us Skepchicks. It’s her site, she does most of the work and keeps the servers running and puts out the fires and, in a sense, I consider a lot of whatever we may have accomplished to always be largely an extension of her own work towards building a more inclusive and aware skeptics’ movement.

Jessica Ahlquist. Facing hatred from her peers and speaking out as a teenager is tough. Fighting for the separation of church and state, and paving the way for the rights of other atheist teens, etc. Great girl.

Rebecca Watson
Greta Christina
Dr. Rachel Dunlop – They’ve been doing a lot of good against anti-vaxxers and the like down there in Australia, and Dunlop is apparently a go-to skeptic for television there.
Annie Laurie Gaylor – FFRF has done quite a bit this year.
Jessica Ahlquist

I think those are my top pics for most influential women in our community. Lots of good choices makes it hard to pick favorites.

I vote for Jessica Ahlquist. Her activism as a high school student is inspiring not only other high school students but college students to be more active which is in turn inspiring the entire movement.

I vote Maryam Namazie – for doing what she does with grace and style and always remaining a strong, inspiring and positive force of nature despite the horrific hateful racism and mysoginist bigotry that’s continually thrown her way.

There’s too many votes for Rebecca Watson, and I don’t follow the crowd well, so I vote for PZ MEYERS!!!!
If that is illegal, then I vote for CompletelyLovely, Heather Buchanan. She’s completely whacky, and I want to share eternity in hell with someone like her around.

Who else has enraged and entire country?
Who else has raised awareness so globally?
Who else now lives with very real death threats?

All the others like Rebecca Watson are notable (and deserving) however are known mostly to the Atheist community and those new comers who dare to expand their minds. However, in terms of shear courage Aliaa Elmahdy wins hands down.

Melissa McEwan has been the atheist with the greatest influence in my life. Amanda Marcotte would be second, and Jen third. I love Hemant and think he deserves the award, but the list of runners up is just disappointing.

Yes, Rebecca Watson is perhaps the most familiar/influential via ElevatorGate to the atheist community as a whole. But Jessica Ahlquist may be the most influential female atheist for high school students. Natalie Reed may be the most influential atheist regarding the transgender community and issues. Oh and I also vote for Greta Christina. :-)

There are so many strong and impressive choices, it’s hard to pick! I’m going to hold myself down to three.

#1- Rebecca Watson, for the Elevatorgate thing certainly but I want to emphasize that she’s been kick-ass all around. I’ve been enjoying a lot of her discussions on audio podcasts this year, and also picked her up on some YouTube videos, mostly at Skepticons past. She’s pretty awesome!

#2- Greta Christina, for her Skepticon speech mostly but also for consistent excellence. She’s been a favorite blogger of mine for many years, almost as long as I’ve been into the online atheosphere. I can’t wait to see her at the Reason Rally/American Atheists in DC.

#3- Maryam Namazie, for the single most impactful protest of the year. That took serious courage, and hit the people/attitudes she was aiming at precisely. I’d never heard of her before this year, but she sure did a hell of a job changing conversations, and I look forward to reading her more in 2012.

—
Not really a proper vote, but I also want to give a special mention to Lunam, the 15-year-old skeptic who got trashed so badly by misogynistic redditors. She handled herself with really admirable grace in the face of stupendously ugly behavior, not backing down and carrying on conversation with the more human people there. I think we’ll be hearing her name again, under better auspices.

Wow… So many awesome women to nominate. That’s part of what makes the atheist/skeptical community so great. The choice would be closer I think if it was “The Most Awesome Female Atheist of 2011″ category. Most courageous I think would have to go to Aliaa Elmahdy and Jessica Ahlquist a close second. My vote for Most Influential goes to Rebecca Watson because of the way she has generated so much needed discourse within the community. Congrats to all of the named women cause they’re all influential and awesome.

Many candidates are famous in the West and influential in their own rights, but Taslima Nasrin is the kind of writer and person who has provoked not only millions of individuals to reaction for or against issues of economy, gender politics, human rights, or religious dis-affiliation, but has enflamed the ire of whole governments to oppose her personally for a sustained length of time. I can think of no single individual who has been more influential and in as many languages and for as long.

Seems to me that Julia Gillard as the PM of Australia exerts quite a bit of influence. Not as much as the President of the United States, but I’ll bet it’s more than Rebecca Watson or even Greta. They get to address small conventions and readers of blogs, but Gillard addresses a whole nation, every day.

Bloggers are preaching to the choir for the most part. The Prime Minister gets to preach to everyone within her bailiwick. Maybe she doesn’t get to give speeches about religion, but her mere presence as an atheist speaks volumes.

Julia Gillard is an atheist who pays lip service to the idea that “Christian values” are somehow a good thing. She claims that her morality is derived from the Bible. And, most tellingly, she pumped an extra $222 million into a national chaplaincy program so that children in public schools could be preached to by fundies from the Australian Scripture Union. The woman has spat in the face of secularism. She may have influence as the PM, but she certainly does not use it to further the cause of atheism; quite the opposite, in fact.

She’s also against gay marriage, which in my mind make her somewhat deficient in the free thought department. But the poll has us voting on atheists with “influence”. There doesn’t seem to be a requirement that we agree with her or find her positions palatable.

But she is still the PM and she is an atheist, so she certainly qualifies (which is why I asked my first question). I wonder, and from where I sit, can only guess, as to how many Australians may feel more comfortable and possibly even “come out” by her mere election? Probably not quantifiable, but I’ll still bet it’s more that Greta or Rebecca combined.

It’s been a good year for me. Rebecca Watson kicked things off by letting me (and the rest of the world) know how bad the problem with sexism (as well as a few other isms) is in the “Reality Based Community.” I’m grateful to her and Gretta Christina for opening a door that was largely closed in my mind.

If they opened it then Jen Peeples, Tracie Harris, Lynnea Glasser, and Beth Presswood kicked the sumbitch in with their wonderful podcast, Godless Bitches. This gives me more to think about in any given week than just about anything else.

Maryam Namazie is a force to be reckoned with. I’m continually inspired by her bravery.

Finally I’d have to mention Skepchick Natalie. I’ve learned so much about trans issues from her, and I imagine that that’s just scraping the surface.

I suppose that being an American blog/poll it is to be expected that mostly American Atheists would be nominated. And yes all the mentions are excellent choices, as they have done massive amount for women’s issues in our movement. But lets not forget there are thousands more women out there, outside the safe borders of America (and it’s protectorates) who are doing equally important work, for 1970’s American recognition.

Aliaa Elmahdy for her courage, although we won’t know until later whether her actions will actually have a lasting influence.

Rebecca Watson for refusing to back down in the face of a vicious over reaction to a fairly mild statement, and by doing so, revealing changes necessary to transform organized atheism from a boy’s club into an inclusive general social movement.

I am going to go with Rebecca Watson. Watson is a really awesome spokesperson for atheism, but her influence was magnified this year by the very large number of sexist pigs who seem to have infested our movement. In the long run atheism is going to become more welcoming of female voices and less welcoming of sexist jerks.

Stef McGraw- One of our most thoughtful young activists who has taken quite a bit of crap lately. Her response to ElevatorGate was the most responsible and adult out of everyone involved, and she is very active in the skeptical community. You can read her stuff here:http://www.unifreethought.com/search/label/Stef%20McGraw

Jessica Ahlquist– For being just plain awesome and taking on the religious establishment as a high school kid.

Rebecca Watson, because she rocked the skeptic/atheist community last year, and Amanda Marcotte because she’s so good at articulating and elucidating things that I subconsciously pick up on but haven’t quite thought through.

Greta Christina. Not the least because she had a definite hand in kicking me into being loud, proud, and vocal about my (already existent) atheism, and for being my jumping-off point to the rest of the atheist blogosphere.

She TOOK HER CLOTHES OFF in protest in the middle of an unstable, ultra-conservative, misogyny-ridden, Islamist political climate in Egypt where the culture is hyper sex-negative and she could get KILLED. Look at the violent responses to her bold statement – the girl’s leaped head-first into shark-infested waters! Real, immediate, life-threatening danger!

2. Ayaan Hirsi Ali – I read her books this year, so her impact on me was this year, but not for things done this year. Still, her courage is incredible, and I’m so looking forward to seeing her speak at the GAC next year.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali for me. She started off the year with a bang. Sure, world events rolled over all of us, and atheism as a movement was side railed by the Arab Spring, tsunamis, earth quakes and the like. As the mid east cooks up with a new democracy, possibly fueled with differing extremes of Islam, I think she will also be a very important voice for the future as well.

But if people want to keep pointing out how infuencial Julia Gillard is for leading a country (despite being atheist in name only it seems) I will point out that using that criteria there is probably no more influential atheist than Angelina Jolie.

My vote goes to Rebecca Watson for obvious reasons and to Eugenie Scott for her tireless battle to keep creationism out of schools year after year. If she can influence the courtrooms and the textbooks she will influence the future.

(And my personal influence Honorable Mentions go to Jen, Deanna Joy Lyons, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sadie Crabtree for one of the best talks at TAM9, and “Astreja” of ex-christian.net, wielder of the almighty clue-by-four.)

Ophelia Benson. I find her blog, Butterflies and Wheels to be greatly influential and informative for me personally. I see the huge support given to Rebecca Watson here and I do truly admire and support her. My second vote would be for her, if we are allowed second votes.

I didn’t forget that women existed in the atheist community at all and I’m going to have to defend The Hitchie Award this year. I started with an open nomination process and asked readers to suggest nominees. Out of all the nominees, I picked five. It was clear to me based on the the e-mails and comments who four of the nominees were going to be right away. But I noticed that there were no women in the mix. I really tried to find a woman nominee and I had several possibilities. But I realized that I shouldn’t really take gender into account when coming up with nominees and that I should just treat everyone equally. If I did that, then none of the female candidates really worked. It sucks and I wish it were different, but there were a lot of great nominees and I only picked five. I tried to not pick the usual suspects (Dawkins, Harris, etc.) because they always win these things and I wanted a more even handed award contest. So let me ask, what female this year had the best year on par with the nominees listed.

Well, that’s a tough one. It’s obviously either Rebecca Watson or Aliaa Elmahdy; no one else came close to them this year.

Between the two of them, I think that in five years we’re more often going to be talking about the impact of what Rebecca Watson did in 2011, although I do expect Aliaa Elmahdy will be remembered. It’s still close, but in the end I’m more confident about saying

Because everything she kicked off is a hole in the head to people who want/need to believe that only brown people have patriarchy.

She threw down a challenge to those who love to tell other societies what they are doing wrong, but who cannot cope with their own misogyny being highlighted.

She yanked the rug out from under some very unpleasant people in our own ranks, and not before time. Now we know how badly we need to clean up our own house if we want to be able to tell other people to tidy theirs.

Out of interest, what proportion of those nominating atheists were women? If your audience is mostly male, and you sat back while they voted for other men, and didn’t think that was a problem, then I have to tell you – you have a problem.

No one made a strong case for Rebecca Watson, but I thought about her anyway. The thing is that internal controversy doesn’t equate to Atheist of the Year. As for Aliaa Elmahdy, I’ll have to Google her because I have no idea who she is. While that may be my own fault, it also means that other people would have to do the same and that means that she wouldn’t likely do well against the more well known candidates.

My question I guess to the female community, is would you rather I had taken gender more into account or remained gender neutral and let the chips fall where they may? I seriously would like to know.

A little background: I am active in the Philly area and we have no shortage of female leaders here. The two main atheist groups are both lead by women and I think they both do an outstanding job and I proud to work with them all the time. Oddly enough, I didn’t even realize this was unusual until the whole elevatorgate thing. Before that, I really didn’t pay attention to gender within the community.

On Examiner, I have no idea the male/female ratio of my readers. On DangerousTalk.net I have the same issue as most male bloggers although I have some vocal female readers too. But Examiner is a more public forum and gets a mix of theists.

My question I guess to the female community, is would you rather I had taken gender more into account or remained gender neutral and let the chips fall where they may? I seriously would like to know.

DangerousTalk: Take gender into account. Because — among many other reasons — there is virtually no way that you can genuinely be gender neutral. We are all influenced, even if unconsciously, by sexism, including the tendency to see what men do as more serious and important than what women do. And a a result, women don’t get promoted as serious participants in society… and as a result of that, we don’t see what women do as serious… If we don’t make a conscious effort to be more inclusive of women, this vicious circle will continue forever. So please, yes, in the future, make an effort to be inclusive of women and to promote their work.

Someone needed to make a “strong case” for the fact that she’s been influential this past year!? Really?

My question I guess to the female community, is would you rather I had taken gender more into account or remained gender neutral and let the chips fall where they may?

At this point in history, there’s no such thing as “gender neutral”.

A little background: I am active in the Philly area and we have no shortage of female leaders here. The two main atheist groups are both lead by women and I think they both do an outstanding job and I proud to work with them all the time. Oddly enough, I didn’t even realize this was unusual until the whole elevatorgate thing. Before that, I really didn’t pay attention to gender within the community

And what are their names? These two women who lead the two main atheist groups in the Philly area? That you don’t even feel moved to mention by name? Do you imagine that the rest of the world just know who they are via osmosis or something?

It has to be Rebecca Watson. Elevatorgate was a major thing rocking the atheist/skeptic blogosphere and it even spilled out a bit into mainstream discourse. Anyone who can create so much of a ruckus by telling a little story and saying “don’t do that” is influential.

Abbie Smith and Steph (Stef?) McGrath
Females who dared to speak their minds and venture outside the ideological box. Truly brave and independent minds who stuck their necks out to challenge gnu feminist dogma. These women continue to be targeted with the vitriol and group-think, refusing the heavy-handed indoctrination endorsed by FFTB.
Any female can play victim and lash out with irrational anger. Poor babies are just so oppressed by the patriarchy, right?

These women proudly demonstrated that women are able to think for themselves. My heroines!!!

Tied for 2nd Place: Greta Christina, Jessica Ahlquist, and Jen McCreight… though it looks like I might be adding Natalie Wood to that list once I’m done reading the posts everyone else here has mentioned.

My vote is definitely for Rebecca Watson. Her work within the atheist community has been incredibly influential. Without her participation in gender issues in our community I would participate even less than I do now, and I think that’s true for a lot of women atheists.

I lurk 364 days a year, but I signed in to vote for Rebecca Watson for braving the hurricane shitstorm of sexist abuse to confront the rampant sexism of fellow internet atheists. Surprisingly, it looks like someone’s beat me to it.

Obviously my one piddly vote isn’t going to do much in this Watson-landslide (a not unearned one, I might add) but I’d like to throw out some recognition for Amanda Knief, our godless lobbyist over at the Secular Coalition for America. She’s on Capitol Hill lobbying for the interests of secular Americans, and has made more progress there than many of us had thought possible – including the groundwork on relationships that have led to several meetings between secular representatives and White House officials. That’s no small task.

In alphabetical order by surname (not going to try for any sort of order-of-impact/-importance, as we get multiple votes):
Greta Christina
Sady Doyle (I just realized that, while I’m pretty sure she’s an atheist, I can’t find a specific statement to that effect; scratch her if she’s actually religious)
Tavi Gevinson
Amanda Marcotte
Rebecca Watson

I have a feeling that the set of female atheists is somewhere between nearly and entirely contained within the set of feminists, so there’s gonna be a lot of overlap (especially for the visible activists who are likely to be nominated); this poll is specifically for “Most Influential Female Atheist of 2011″, so the nominees need not identify as/be identified as feminist. You also don’t have to like what they say, it just has to be influential. :-)

My vote would be for Rebecca Watson for being the most influential, however my vote actuylly goes to Jessica Ahlquist, because when you are only 16 and alone at a religiously dominated Highschool you need every support you can get…

Rebecca Watson.
She couldn’t have known what shitstorm she’d start with a small remark, so I can’t give her credit for that, but she gets full points for not backing down, not becoming quiet, not slowing down and not giving in one jota despite that she now has more than a life-time worth of experience in being treated like shit by obsessed misogynists.

I’ve only recently started reading feminist blogs. As a male, some of it can be difficult to read. But I just like the way Greta puts things across. Even when she’s writing about something that has pissed her off, she never comes across as snappy or condescending and… I don’t know, I’m not great with words and I’m not sure I can convey what I really mean, but everything she writes just seems to make sense to me and has had a big impact on me.

No. You misunderstand me. Merit should not be a secondary consideration. But because of unconscious sexism, if we don’t go out of our way to make sure we consider and promote worthwhile women, we will miss people of equal and often greater merit than the ones we’d considered and promoted before.

Lyz Lydell from the SSA. A tireless worker behind the scenes. It is time for the movement to recognize real professionals who don’t occupy the same media spotlight, but are extremely influential (this is not to imply that bloggers aren’t professional, just to clarify).

I don’t know what you meant by “influence”, but I bet Julia Gilard would probably be found to be far more influential for most definitions of “influence” than any bloggers, whose influence is limited mostly to their readers.

I also concur, but I would reverse them. Greta, #1, is just so awesome, and so eloquently reaches so many people. Rebecca, also very awesome, and reaches out nearly as far and wide, plus she placed herself at the center of what was ultimately positive firestorm about male sexism in the atheist community.

Rebbeca Watson, hands down, for how she rightfully went up Richard Dawkins’s. A minor yet revealing episode.

For his many qualities and virtues, Richard Dawkins really got caught in a blind spot on this one. And me too. My first reaction to the whole story was in line with Dawkins but it got me thinking. So many thanks to Rebecca.

My gut instinct was to say Rebecca Watson, since she made the biggest impact, but I think Greta had the more meteoric rise to prominence this year. Rebecca gained a little popularity this year, but Greta took the spotlight solidly, in my opinion.

Plus, being queer, her perspective on atheist issues of discrimination, coming out, accepting identity, tolerance, etc.–those issues that overlap between the communities–have more of an authoritative tone. I think that should bear heavily on her influence.

This is a tough one – I thought it quite easy at first, and wrote a whole paragraph about one person, but now I’ve changed my mind, on deeper analysis.

I had thought that Rebecca, without a doubt, was number one. But I think I was sort of conflating skepticism with atheism. To my mind, they go hand in hand. Atheism is a subset of skepticism. And Rebecca brought a spotlight to bear on a dirty little secret of the skeptical world, in a big, no-nonsense way. I am incredibly impressed by her writing, and her dedication, in this and other subjects.

But when it comes to atheism, upon further consideration I have to give my vote to Greta Christina. Prior to her joining FTB, I was aware of her, but not familiar with her. I’m thrilled to have finally discovered this powerhouse of atheist writing!

No, YOU have to be kidding. With all those hallmarks of privilege Dawkins is incapable of properly understanding complex human interactions because his mind is simply too fogged by prejudice and cluelessness. He cannot overcome it and he should be ashamed of himself for trying to.
If he was just a wealthy man but gay, he might be worth listening to, but with being white and everything. No way.

I recognize and respect all of the hard word and considerable talent displayed by every nominee so far and support their nominations. I would also like to take special notice of Maryam Namazie. Her writing has inspired me to more research and hours on google than any other.

Maryam Namazie gets my number two vote. She speaks out about the wrongdoings of her religion and in so doing puts her own life in danger.

Despite not being an atheist – I don’t subscribe to any group/community, I would have given number three vote to Rebecca Watson, had it not been for the not too thought out ”literacy’ remark she made about an e-mail she received from a person who was pestering her. Offend the behaviour, but not ‘the lack of literacy skills’ is my motto. The ill thought out remark was made at the Dublin Atheist Conference last year.

Definitely Rebecca Watson for 2011.
Of course Ophelia Benson, Greta Christina, Libby Anne, Jen, Jessica Ahlquist, Maryam Namazie, Mina Ehadi, Ayaan Ali Hirsi, Taslima Nasreen, the Pakistani actress whose name I forgot, the daughter of the murdered secular Pakistani MP and many others are great and courageous, too, but the biggest impact in 2011 in the US certainly was Watson’s. Also, I find it important that she had the courage to address a big problem within her own community!